Improvement in portable railways



A. BASS.

Portable Railways. I

P10164252 P'atentedlune8,1875.

jig-.1.

fig. 2.

THE GRAPHIC C0. PHOT0 -LITH.39 E41 PARK PLAGLNV.

U NrrED STATES PATENT OEEIoE.

ALEXANDER BASS, OF LAS OAEAS, NEAR ALAORANES, CUBA.

IMPROVEMENT IN PORTABLE RAILWAVS.

Spec'fication forming part of Letters Patent No. 164,252, dated J une 8, 1875 application filed May 19, 1875.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALEXANDER Bnss, of Las Cafias, near Alacranes, Cuba, have invented a new and useful Improvement in square or angular, and which are placed in holes of like form made in the rails and crosspieces, in such a manner that they cannot move upon each other, but are, by means of the form of the rivets, held rigidly to each other. My invention further consists in locking-pieces which project from the crosspieces at the ends of the sections, and interlock with each other by engaging merely by lateral contact,

as will be fully hereinafter described.

The letter A designates the rails, and the letter B designates the cross-pieces of my improved portable railway. The rails are of iron, made of the usual form employed for railways, and the cross-pieces consist of bars of T-iron placed in an inverted position, so that the ribs rest on the earth while the flanges are upward, and receive on them the flanges of the rails, in which position they are secured to each other, so as to form sections, 0 O, of track of about ten feet in length, of any desired gage. When T-iron of proper size cannot be obtained I use angle-iron instead, and place two angle-irons back to back and rivet them to each other, and employ them as cross pieces. The rails are secured to the crosspieces by means of square rivets c, which are arranged in square holes or recesses D, made to receive them, in each flange of the rail, going down into square holes E, made in the cross-pieces, the heads of the rivets resting on the tops of the flanges of the rails in the usual manner.

This construction of portable railway enables me to obtain great strength and stiffness, and, by means of the square or an gular-sided rivets, I prevent the sections from becoming twisted or distorted, and prevent the parts from moving on each other, and thereby secure always a good fit of one section with another.

The ends of each section of my railway are .provided with projecting locking-pieces J J,

which are so arranged as to articulate with those on the ends of the next section, said locking-pieces being riveted to the upper surface of the end cross-pieces, and being free to slide in endwise or to drop down beside each other, so as to secure the sections from lateral motion when they are placed end to end.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. The combination, with the rails A A and cross-pieces B of the sections of a portable railway, of square-sided rivets for securing the rails and cross-pieces together, substantially as described.

2. The combination of the locking-pieces J J with the sections 0, arranged and operating substantially as described.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto set my hand and seal this 29th day of April, 1875.

ALEXANDER BASS. [L. s.]

Witnesses:

J NO. A. SPRINGER, J 0s. A. RAPHEL. 

